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Parramatta Female Factory 1821-1847 “All reflecting persons will surely unite in the sentiment that the female placed in the prison for her crimes, in the hospital for her sickness, in the asylum for her insanity, or in the workhouse for her poverty, possesses no light or common claim on the pity and attention of those of her own sex” Elizabeth Fry, 1827
The Bells of Ireland sung by Muiris (Mossie) O'Scanlain. Inspired by a true story with the discovery of a unopened letter found among papers in the Tasmanian Museum & archives, written to irish convict Mary Walsh in 1843 by her husband James. Whether Mary was reunited with him and her children remains a mystery ..... |
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Commissioned
by Governor Macquarie and designed by convict architect Francis Greenway, the Female Factory was intended as a place of refuge,
industry and punishment for convict women and their children. On the 4 May 1818 contracts were signed by builders Isaac Payten and William Watkins and it was completed and occupied on 1 February 1821. The Female Factory complex contained a three storey central dormitory/mess building, extensive out buildings,
drying grounds, gardens and solitary cells all enclosed within a high perimeter wall. Read about the Female Factory at Parramatta
in the 'Report of the Commissioner of Inquiry into the state of the Colony of New South Wales' (J.T. Bigge) - State Library of NSW
Originally designed
to accommodate 300 the Factory's resident population peaked at 1203 women and 263 children in 1842. These numbers roughly
correspond with increased arrivals and decreases in the demand for assigned labour. Records for 1827 show 322 inmates, 1828:
405 women, 1829: 537 women and 61 children, with an average annual turnover of around 1,200 per year during the first decade.
During the 1830s the monthly average remained around 500 for women and 130 children, with the annual turnover around 6000
women and 1600 children. 1840: 887 women 405 children and 1845: 370 women and 123 children. Its inmate population was
made up of women nursing children, the old and infirm, stationary servants, awaiting assignment or having been assigned awaiting
withdrawal, sick in either Factory or Hospital, destitute women and women sentenced to the penitentiary.
The Factory provided health services for aged and invalid
women together with a lying in hospital for nursing mothers and for many years was the only institution wherein a deserted
infant could be placed with a wetnurse. Mothers were allowed to keep their children up to four years of age after which
they were sent to an Orphan School, thereafter all contact with their children was lost until their release and often times
longer depending on their circumstances. With the influx of female immigrants from the 1830s onwards, the Orphan School became
too crowded to accept ‘Factory' children and an Infant school was established. In 1834 the Board of Management
recommended that a certain sum be offered to small settlers and others to take children out to nurse in an effort to reduce
numbers. In effect this was the first attempt at a ‘boarding out system' (foster care) in New South Wales.
Governor Macquarie introduced
a Class System to manage the Factory women. Initially female convicts in the Factory were divided into two classes, distinguished
simply as the ‘Crime class’ and the ‘Other class’. This latter class consisted of the aged, married
or young with a further distinction applied as a Merit Class-according to good conduct. After 12 months Merit Class women
could marry or be assigned whilst disorderly conduct resulted in demotion to the Crime Class. This system was further refined
into three distinct classes, First, Second and Third with the latter serving time in the penitentiary.
Secondary punishments applied to women who rioted, absconded, were absent, insolent, disorderly in their conduct and for women on release for theft, stabbing, forgery, found in ‘carnal connection,' drunk, vagrant, pregnant or of ‘bad character.' Punishment included demotion to the Third Class, head shaving, hard labour and solitary confinement fed on bread and water for up to 21 days or exile to Moreton Bay. In 1823 Governor Brisbane ordered the building of a penitentiary to supplement the existing solitary confinement cells. This building was later adapted as a hospital when in 1838, Governor Gipps ordered the building of a three storey penitentiary block containing 72 cells.
The first recorded riot occurred in 1827 followed by others in 1831, 1833, 1836 and 1843.
Most riots occurred as a result of overcrowding and inequitable arrangements.
Read an account written by Godfrey Mundy about a riot at the Female Factory here...
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Women in the First and Second classes were employed in a range of tasks such as wool picking, cloth scouring, carding, weaving, laundry, oakum picking, needlework, cleaning duties and straw plaiting for which they received a small payment. Third class women were restricted to menial tasks and hard labour such as stone breaking and received no payment for their work. Initially all women were issued the same basic clothing or ‘slops’ in blue or brown serge, or Stuff-Gown, white apron and straw bonnet for Sunday with a jacket and coarse apron for week days. After 1824 first class women were issued special Sunday clothes being; one white cap, a long dress with muslin frill, one red calico jacket, two cotton check handkerchiefs, one blue gurrah petticoat, one under petticoat or factory flannel, one white calico apron, two shifts, one pair of grey stockings, one pair of shoes, one straw bonnet, and a clothes bag to hold all. Weekdays; two calico caps, drab serge petticoat, drab serge jacket one apron.
Sometimes referred to as the ‘old stone jug'
or the ‘Nunnery' or ‘Gordonville' after Anne Gordon who was appointed Matron in 1827, the Factory was also the place where the Sisters of Charity commenced their missionary work in Australia. The Factory served many functions-it was a refuge, workhouse, a marriage bureau,
a gaol, a hospital and a regulator of morality. This multiplicity of roles made it difficult to administer and it quickly
evolved from a place of refuge to that of a punitive establishment. The Factory's first Superintendent was Francis Oakes, with Elizabeth Fulloon as Matron and all internal staff were recruited from the First Class.
Transportation to the colony of
New South Wales ended in 1840 however this did nothing in decreasing the population of the Factory. Faced
with a new wave of migration suggestions were made that the Factory be used to accommodate Female Emigrants however this was
dismissed and an alternative proposal for its use as a benevolent asylum for sick and destitute convict women was taken up
with the transfer of 21 women from the Tarban Creek Asylum in 1846. Two years later the Female Factory was proclaimed an Asylum for Lunatic and Invalid Convicts;
OTHER FEMALE FACTORIES IN AUSTRALIA
Remaining Female Factory buildings are the Matron’s residence, the Storekeepers residence, 1823 penitentiary and
sections of the exterior perimeter wall together with the Bell and Clock. In 1861 building commenced on a new sandstone ward for the criminally insane, and proceeded over a number of years with the second floor added by March 1864 and a third floor in 1869. These additions did little to improve conditions and by 1872 the institution was in a very poor state and rife with corruption perpetrated on a large scale by many of the staff. The Parliamentary Select Committee of Inquiry, 1876 heralded in an era of improvement which eventually saw the building of a two storey sandstone range containing dormitories, day rooms, dining rooms and cell block completed in 1877. The main three storey dormitory building was demolished in 1883 and its stones were recycled into what was later known as Ward 1 (now the Institute of Psychiatry). Until it was demolished around 1890 the Third Class penitentiary (1839) was used for female patients. Today this area is regarded as a major archeological site and a barrel drain, unearthed in 1991 corresponds to the earlier mill race built around 1799.
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Arts, Culture & the Curious
Boats & Bonnets - In recent years the Female Factories have been a source of inspiration for a number of artists, among them is Tasmanian based visual artist Christina Henri who has undertaken several projects to communicate the grief and loss experienced by convict women. Dreaming Transportation - In Studio Dreaming Transportation a music theatre work for women's voices, inspired by Jordie Albiston's series of poems Botany Bay Document 'Dreaming Transportation' 2000, composed by Andrée Greenwell and featuring the voices of Deborah Conway, Justine Clarke, Miriam Allan, Christine Douglas and Amie McKenna. Performed at the Sydney Opera House and Riverside Theatres. Distant Shores (Zu Neuen Ufern) This is the first film about the Female Factory and was made in Germany in 1937, directed by Douglas Sirk and starring Swedish born actress Zarah Leander. Described as a film about the romance of passion and fraud during the colonising days of Australia, when a singer goes to be deported for the sake of a man who has stolen money, it was screened as part of a special tour conducted by historian Terry Smith at Cumberland Hospital in August 1997. Women Transported - Life in Australia's Convict Female Factories - Produced for the landmark exhibition held at the Parramatta Heritage Centre this publication Women Transported - Life in Australia's convict female factories tells the story of women who became the mothers of our nation and contains a comprehensive list of names of convict women in the Female Factories. Copies can be purchased through Parramatta Heritage Centre. Female Factory Research project
Further Reading Damousi, Joy, 1961- Depraved and disorderly : female convicts, sexuality and gender in colonial Australia. Cambridge University Press, 1997 Daniels, Kay. Convict Women.
Allen & Unwin, 1998. Oxley, Deborah. Convict maids; the forced
migration of women to Australia. Cambridge University Press, 1996. Robinson, Portia. The
women of Botany Bay : a reinterpretation of the role of women in the origins of Australian society. Rev. ed.
Penguin, 1993. Salt, A. These Outcast Women - The Parramatta Female Factory
1821-1848. Sydney: Hale & Iremonger 1984. Smith. B. A Cargo of Women; Allen & Unwin reprint 2008 Smith. T Hidden Heritage, 150 years of Public Mental Health Care at Cumberland Hospital, Parramatta 1849-1999. PICTURES: photos provided courtesy of the NSW Society of Genealogists (SAG) from the J K Houison Collection Contact us: PFFP Parragirls,
PO BOX 2025 North Parramatta NSW 1750 or by email here
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